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{
    "id": 393876,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/393876/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 53,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Kagwe",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 229,
        "legal_name": "Mutahi Kagwe",
        "slug": "mutahi-kagwe"
    },
    "content": "Thank you very much, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me an opportunity to contribute to this important Motion that my brother, Sen. Karaba, has introduced in this House. Indeed, I am very proud of my friend, because if I look at the cover page of my election manifesto, there is a cable car leading to Mt. Kenya. Therefore, I am pleased and thrilled that colleagues in this House are thinking exactly the same. It is the workings of great minds. Great minds think alike. Congratulations to Sen. Karaba. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the image of a nation or country is what determines the quality of the people who visit that country. Kenya, to a large extent, has over the last many years been a low-cost destination for tourists. That means that you can get millions of tourists – and the target is three million – but the revenue that we gather from them can be very small. The reason would be because the image of the country is one where you either visit the beach or go and see wildlife. With cable cars, two things happen. First, you cannot have a banana republic and cable cars in the same sentence. Cable cars are an advancement of human endeavour. It is something that belongs to another set of development. It does not belong to a very poor country. In public relations, we talk about perception being everything. Therefore, when a nation introduces cable cars; I can imagine a place like Mt. Kenya. I can see ourselves going by cable cars, all the way to point Lenana and, therefore, avoiding the destruction of the route, forests and giving wild animals the freedom to roam around there without human interference. Therefore, the image that you would create is that it is an expensive destination. The tourists who will go there will on average spend US$5,000 rather than the ones who will spend US$100 on curios. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we are also giving them an opportunity to spend money, because sometimes people can have money, but do not know what to spend it on. When you give them an opportunity to travel in cable cars and go up the mountains and down the valleys, then the psychological impact that we have of our nation in the world is that this is the place to visit. It is an up-market place and you go there if you have got money. The target of three million tourists is very small. Places like Paris in France have got over 50 million tourists; more than the population of Kenya. Over 17 million people walk The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}